Thursday, July 26, 2007

Thursday evening - Has the bike gone AWOL? Are there riders who aren't posters? Tis a puzzlement. If you've seen the bike in the past two days, by all means, send a note to rideitforward@gmail.comAvez vous vue le vélo? Un courriel SVP!

Monday, July 23, 2007

Greetings! Here is my mini-epic about your conceptual velo.

I spoke with you today about the bike, with the possibility of being the first rider. Instead my grumbling belly led me astray to lunch, when soon after it dawned on me, why the hell didn't i take that thing for a ride? heh. Really though, I came out, and there was your first rider getting his picture taken on it. I thought, well, that will teach me for turning it down, and smiled and went back to work. About three hours later, I came back out to grab a coffee and .... welll, VOILA! there was the bike back in its same spot! After figuring I would likely never see this bike again but on your blog, I was relieved, grabbed it, and went. I didn't have much of a destination, I just knew I had best seize the chance to go for a little tour. Heading east mid-day, I ventured some back streets that I would normally avoid strickly out of routine. I thought about where I should go, and more importantly, where I should leave it. I didn't like the thought of just anybody taking it in as their own and hogging its greatness, so, I toured on. I ended up near the Jacques Cartier bridge a little later, ran a few errands in that end of town, grabbed some groceries, and kept on. Then it hit me. I knew who would appreciate, or at least appreciate this concept;my beloved CBC!

I had to get heading back home at this point, so I got a few shots of the bike while onlookers looked at me like I was out to lunch posing with a bike in front of the CBC. Luckily I didn't care, and slowly tried to walk away just leaving it there - in the wide open, and without lock and chain! This blew my mind a little, since in Montreal, one must be very keen on keeping predators from cold handedly thiefing your only mode of transportation. Despite thinking once or twice how I should switch the sign to my piece of crap bike, I nevertheless headed towards home on foot.

The bike had a bit of a slow start today. From McGill College andSherbrooke, some BMX kids took the bike and played with it a bit. I saw them around 1:30, and then found this bike on the lawn at McGill an hour later. So I rode it back to the first launch site, just outside the library. By 3:40, the bike was off again. Looking forward to hearing about where it goes next.

What's it all about?

An old bike. A desire to make a difference. An idea.

What if we took the old bike, fixed it up a bit, added a sign saying "ride this and leave it for someone else," and put up a webpage where people could follow the bike's travels? Would it get stolen? Would it be vandalized? Would it travel great distances? Would it be the beginning of a wide-scale, worldwide re...um...cycle project? "Ride it Forward" is that idea come to life.

If you've seen the bike or ridden it, and have another like it that you'd like to add, just email us at rideitforward@gmail.com and we can expand the project. Maybe, just maybe, we can change the world for the better, one ride at a time!